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Paladin: Guide by Willriker/Part IV
<-- Previous page | Paladin: Guide by Willriker | Next page --> Group 2 Abilities :In a recent update, SE added new abilities to Paladin. Well to be more precise they added 2 new abilities and 2 new traits. Each JA or JT can be upgraded to a maximum of level 3. But, the maximum, total, number of upgrades you can distribute among all of these abilities is 6. This was intended to add a further layer of customization to your character. :You will not have access to these abilities just through simply reaching level 75. You need to sink merit points into these abilities in order to “unlock” them. Once you unlocked the ability it is only usable to your character while it is level 75. This means that if you enter a level capped area you will not have these abilities any more, well until you leave the level cap. :If you remove all of the merits from a Group 2 ability, reducing the modification to 0, you will lose that ability. :The merits needed to Maximize any Group 2 ability are 3 > 4 > 5 = 12 merits. :Ok! Many Players say that the Jobs which gained the most out of the added abilities are the Thief, Dark night, and Red Mage. However, it took me a little while of thinking about the merits themselves before I could conclude that Paladin should actually be added to that list as well. :I know what you’re thinking, well what your thinking if you pay attention to forums, "Paladin only received one ability that is worth getting, and that is Chivalry." I would say that no, you are wrong. Every single ability in the update has a very nice impact on the Paladin Job. :Without Further ado, Let me introduce to you the new abilities a Paladin can merit (upon reaching level 75): : :Let’s take this one at a time; I will attempt to fully discuss each of these traits/abilities. But first let me mention one thing, every ability that is essential to the Paladin Job is gained on the journey to 75. This is the same for every other job as well. Not one of these abilities will make or break you in an experience point party or an HNM scene. This is the same for every job in the game. These abilities are just the icing on the cake, and in the case of Paladin are excellent additions to the job. :Fealty - This is actually quite a nice ability. In fact, I believe it to be the single most under rated ability that Paladins have gained. This will grant you a High Resistance to enfeeble. Not only that, but this will last for a whole minute at the first upgrade! ::Pros - It does not take long to become familiarize yourself with what to expect from certain enemies. I mean, there are certain things you just don’t want to happen... i.e. bind on Kirin, and Silence/defense downs and many other things like terrorize and petrification or even paralyze. Each and every one of these enfeebles has cause every single Paladin to die on multiple occasions. The only trick to this is knowing when to use it. But even this isn’t all that tricky. There comes times when Sieryu is giving you more trouble than it should, MP is running low on your mages, and you just have a feeling that your hate is not as solid as you would like it to be. Or you’re kiting Kirin, and you’re at 50% health. At these times if you’re silenced/bound/paralyzed it means a sure death... And that is the time to use this ability. Sure it might be wasted, But think of this as more of an insurance policy against disaster. Personally, I have yet to be enfeebled while this ability is active. And it has saved me from death on multiple occasions. ::Cons - The down side is that it has a 20 minute recast timer (it can be merited down to 15 min) and it does not generate all too much Hate. ::Recommendations - Only sink one upgrade into this. Just having it is enough to help you out. The reduced timer simply isn’t worth having as most fights don’t even last 15 minutes. Not only that but it has been shown that further upgrades do not increase the effectiveness of Chivalry. So there is no reason to assume further upgrades will increase the effectiveness of Fealty either. :Chivalry - Now this is possibly the most famous of the merited abilities. It exchanges your TP for MP at a ratio of something like (1 TP) = (1.3-1.5MP) and starts out as a 20 minute timer (it can be merited down to 15 minute recast. ::Pros - The effect of Chivalry is instantaneous. It is rumored that the use of Chivalry also adds a considerable amount of Hate. Not only that but it makes using a staff for individual fights pretty much useless now. All of these effects are excellent. But let’s delve into the actual usefulness of this ability for a second. ::This ability has a couple of strategic uses, the first and most obvious is that it allows you to refresh your MP supply. Remember, if you have no MP... you won’t be keeping hate for much longer. But at BEST it has a 15 minute recast. So for 90% of your fights this will only be used once. For shorter fights you can actually TP up, Blow all your MP in one glorious Hate spike and use this to get your MP back. ::The second part of this ability is where its true power lies. Many Paladins are pissed off that they did not get a provoke like ability. Some say that having a Provoke like ability would severely over power the Paladin job. I would argue that this ability is 10X more potent than provoke, if used to make a massive spike of hate (at what turns out to be no loss of MP and being nearly invincible in the process due to CONSTANT Cure III and Cure IV spamage.) ::This one ability alone will come to be viewed as more important that even Dark Knights TP-Drain! ::Cons - well there are 3 cons to this ability. ::#When you use this ability you lose all of your TP, so no WS are available. This may be ok in an exp party... but more times than not, it wont. ::#If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can spike hate so high that no one can get the enemy off of you; hate almost as high as invincible. Depending on the enemy this can be a bad thing actually. ::#It will NOT free you from the need of Refresh. ::Recommendations - Get it first. It will help with both survivability and Hate (depending on how you use it). However, you might not want to fully upgrade this. There is a hidden goodie that would be far more beneficial to fully merit. Just having this will be enough, especially because more upgrades will not have a greater effect on the ability itself. Sure, you can merit it down to a 15 minute recast. But I would argue that a fight which will last 15 minutes.... will more than likely last more than 20 minutes. I.e. Fafnir and Kirin will both last more than 20 minutes; while Faust and Seiryu will both last less than 15 minutes. So what’s the point in the reduced timer, considering there is no added effect. :Iron Will - Believe it or not this ability is not as bad as it sounds. It adds a spell interruption rate down effect to Rampart. ::Pros - It is a PASSIVE JOB TRAIT, which means you don’t have to activate Iron Will itself; rather it is tied to Rampart. It is used automatically when Rampart is in effect. Not only is that but the key, most important part of this ability that Rampart is AOE. This means that the entire tank party/exp party gets this effect. ::It remains to be seen how this will effect a mage who is paralyzed by lets say Cerberus, but one thing is for damn sure, if you have a Nin buddy who is having troubles getting that Utsinemi back up and running, this will help him as well. Something to note about this ability is that it helps 5 OTHER people out. Therefore has a chance to be more useful than anyone else gives it credit for. ::Some have actually told me that, "I won't merit this trait, because it will only last for 30 seconds." I say... your entire agreement is not right. ::#Ramparts recast is 5 minutes and lasts 30 seconds. Therefore, during the time it takes to use Chivalry 1 time (and have it recharge)... You got to use Rampart 4X!!! The math is simply rampartX4 = 2 minutes worth of effect. ::#You can merit Rampart down in recast time. Thereby further enhancing this duration. ::Cons - "How useful is -Spell interruption anyway? Lets face it; no mages wear the stuff with -spell interruption." I'm one of those lucky few Paladins that actually experimented with things like Knightly earring and other -interruption items. I must say that it most definitely has an effect on getting off a sloppy cure, saving you the time it takes to recast it. And that was only with something like 15% interruption rate down. There is a reason mages put up Aqua veil for important fights. :Guardian - This ability reduces the rate at which hate decays!!! Huh!? Wait a minute... It took me about 3 days of thinking about this, in action, before I realized just how... BROKEN this ability actually is. Please give me a chance to explain, you've been with me this far lol. ::Pros - ::#This is a PASSIVE TRAIT and also improves as you merit it. (Something Fealty and Chivalry do not do) ::#Not only that but it is linked to Sentinel. This is perfect. Sentinel ONLY EFFECTS YOU it is not AoE. Your mages won’t get this effect, and neither will the Nin sitting next to you ;). ::#Being linked to Sentinel, you get to abuse this every 5 minutes. (Can merit sentinel down to 4 minutes I believe) That's 4-6 uses per every Chivalry for a total of 2-3 minutes of reduced hate decay. O.o ::# Level 2 upgrade INCREASES this effect by 19% wow ::Lets look at how this ability is used. Flash -> Provoke -> Cure III or Cure IV -> Sentinel (with Guardian). Now for 30 Seconds the hate you generated from this routine remains relatively constant. Then, after 30 seconds what happens? Stack on another Provoke-> Cure III or IV -> Flash. Did you actually see what just happened? Did you just notice how BROKEN that shit is? ::If you didn't think about Hate... Think about how much Hate you just made in the first part. Then think about that much hate being relatively constant. Now think about that hate spiking up even further upward with the second routine! Now you’re starting to get how AMAZING this ability is. ::Ok, let’s take this to an extreme and work Chivalry into the mix. Let’s chose something that will actually damage you... like Seiryu. Flash -> Provoke -> Cure IV -> defender -> Cure IV -> Cure III -> Sentinel (with Guardian) -> Cure IV -> Chivalry (now you have full MP). NOT ONLY THAT, But you also have a HUGE amount of hate that remains static for 30 seconds!!! After that 30 seconds, you stack on another provoke, and another Cure IV and another Flash. Sweet lord!! ::Fully merited and used correctly this is quite possibly the single most important thing we got. I mean any job can spike hate. But this just solidified Paladin as the masters of Hate. ::Cons - Lasts for 30 seconds, and has a 5 minute recast (unless sentinel is merited), so you must use this often and wisely... other wise you are not using it to its fullest and most glorious potential. I know you can all hold hate off a BLM casting a Flare or Freeze. But with this ability it is EXTREMELY possible to hold hate from a BLM that just Freeze -> Flare back to back. ::Recommendations - This ability is more awe inspiring (in a hidden way) than all of the other abilities. I mean it’s not as flashy as lets say Chivalry. In fact, when most see you use sentinel they won’t even know your using Guardian. Not only that but it gets better with merits!! I highly advise maxing this one out. :SE gave us what is possibly the best SET of upgrades of any Job. Review :There are certain things to focus on. Certain Merits that are considered so good that they are almost essential to the Paladins Career. Listed in priority these are: :#Shield Maximum :#Hit Points :These are the things that will keep you alive. With these completely upgraded there is a very good chance you will survive an assault by anything on Vana’diel. Everything else on the list is completely your decision. But if you are going to be the main tank, max these. :Ok, HP doesn’t need to be maxed, but at least 5 upgrades ;) Disclaimer and Resources :Over the years if have read many of guides on Paladin. It would be wrong to say that my opinion has not been shaped by those readings. My problem lies in the fact that I have read so many guides that I can no longer remember where I got what facts from which guide. I went from my “own knowledge” during the writing of this guide. If there is some portion of this guide that seams very familiar that is the reason. :Also, there is quite a bit of numerical data in this guide. All of the numerical data in this guide was not initially compiled by myself. I lifted it from these sites: *Totalffxi.net *Mysterytour *Koolaid-ffxi.org ---- <-- Previous page | Paladin: Guide by Willriker | Next page -->